Public Must Get Behind Plan toSave Puget Sound

It might not be obvious to the untrained eye, but Puget Sound is a sick body of water that needs help.</p>
<p>Everyone in the region will have a role in whether Puget Sound will be one of the great environmental restoration success stories of our time or a lifeless water body polluted beyond the point of no return.</p>
<p>To her credit, Gov. Chris Gregoire has made Puget Sound cleanup and recovery a key goal of her administration. She's convened a high-powered group of public and private-sector leaders to develop a Puget Sound initiative designed to show marked progress in the health of Puget Sound by 2020.</p>
<p>But even the most optimistic supporters of Puget Sound cleanup admit it is a daunting task with no guarantee of success. Reversing Puget Sound's decline will require sustained public and political support in the face of population growth that is expected to add another 1 million people to the Puget Sound basin in the next 15 years.</p>
<p>The first order of business is to build public support for the cleanup effort. Without it, the Puget Sound recovery plan will be doomed from the start.</p>
<p>But a recent public opinion poll found that most people don't even know Puget Sound is in trouble.</p>
<p>People don't seem to know that hundreds of species that call Puget Sound home are in decline, from the mighty orca to the iconic chinook salmon.</p>
<p>They are unaware that even an on-site septic tank in good working order can deliver nutrients to Puget Sound that promote algae blooms, which, in turn, rob the oxygen of water and kill fish and other marine life. It's happening in Hood Canal, and it could happen in South Sound next.</p>
<p>The 2005-07 state budget included nearly $572 million for Puget Sound conservation and recovery projects, most of it for the upgrade of wastewater treatment plants that deliver 600 million gallons of treated wastewater to Puget Sound and its tributaries each day.</p>
<p>But funding for public education and outreach amounted to only 0.36 percent of the budget, or $2 million. Clearly the public education campaign must be ramped up to build public support.</p>
<p>The public support for Puget Sound must be in place before Gregoire's administration can make a case for new taxes or fees dedicated to restore the region's most treasured body of water.</p>
<p>The Olympian